National Programme of Clinical Audit and Confidential Enquiries

Department of Health
Skipton House, 80 London Road
SE1 6LH London
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail: ClinicalAudit@dh.gsi.gov.uk

Internet address(es):

General address of the contracting authority: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/Procurementandproposals/BMS/index.htm

Further information can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions

Health

The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: no

National Programme of Clinical Audit and Confidential Enquiries.

Service category No 25: Health and social services
NUTS code UK

The notice involves the establishment of a framework agreement: no

The Department of Health (Contracting Authority) is to enter into a full re-tender of its management contract for National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programmes (NCAPOP) and Clinical Outcome Review Programmes (CORP), which ends 31.3.2013.
This programme of work includes the procurement and management of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) and four National Confidential Enquiries as well as centrally led activities to promote and support national and local clinical audit participation and evaluation of services in the NHS. An emerging aspect of this programme is the engagement, development and promotion of audit in social care settings.
Estimated cost excluding VAT:
Range: between 1 200 000,00 and 2 600 000,00 GBP
Lots

This contract is divided into lots: yes

85100000, 85121200, 85140000, 85148000

The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): yes

The purpose of this PIN is to inform and ready the market in advance of the Contract Notice being issued. This PIN is also to inform the market that the Contracting Authority intends to hold an engagement event with potential providers on Monday 25.6.2012.
The 2010 White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS outlined a commitment to extend the number of national clinical audits across a much wider range of conditions and treatments, recognising its important role as a driver of quality improvement. As well as being a key component of the Quality Framework and the NHS Outcomes Framework, national clinical audit underpins three important themes of the new care system by:
1. measuring the success of the NHS by focussing on clinical outcomes rather than centrally determined targets;
2. providing meaningful data and feedback to give front-line clinicians the information they need to stimulate quality improvement across a broad range of services and long-term conditions; and
3. publishing information about the quality of care provided by organisations and patient outcomes, as part of the Government’s transparency commitment to make more health data available to support patient choice.
Over the next few years, the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme will expand from 29 to 40 national audits and will consider how to audit services across care pathways, collecting data from the NHS, primary care and social care. It will also consider how to embed patient experience as a measure within clinical audit so that quality is audited across all three domains of – effectiveness (including value for money), safety and experience. Equally important to improving the quality of care services is the local audit support element of this programme of work. In a changing care system with competing financial priorities, now more than ever local audit staff need support to adapt to changes in national and local approaches to quality improvement. In order to deliver successfully against both aspects of this work, the contract will be divided into two lots Lot 1: Providing support for clinical audit in health and social care and Lot 2: Management of National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) and Clinical Outcomes Review Programme (CORP).
The contract will be divided into two lots, which may be delivered, by a single organisation or two organisations working closely together. Each lot has a distinctive but inter-related role that requires a different skills set and expertise from the other. It will need to be demonstrated how an integrated service will be provided if only one lot is being bid for.
Note: To find out further details of the engagement event on Monday 25 June and to register to attend, please email ClinicalAudit@dh.gsi.gov.uk with your details.

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Consortia are encouraged to bid for this service.

The main focus of this work will be to support NHS commissioned organisations and staff carry out both local and national clinical audit with an additional role in extending audit practice to the social care sector.
Building on existing materials the contractor will provide information on the availability of up-to-date materials and resources to support staff carrying out local and national audit in trusts and with other organisations providing NHS care, for example GP practices. Where appropriate and adequate material or services are not available, the contractor will provide or commission new material.
The contractor will consider ways to engage with and support those who run local audits and who supply data to national audits. The contractor will also consider the need for training resources to support those commissioning and taking part in clinical audit.

85100000, 85121200, 85140000, 85148000

Estimated cost excluding VAT:
Range: between 600 000,00 and 1 000 000,00 GBP

Duration in months: 36( from the award of the contract)

The increasing roles for national clinical audit to underpin quality improvement in the NHS (through redesign, revalidation, regulation, commissioning, reimbursement and risk management) means that National Clinical Audits (NCAs) must be accurate, rigorous and relevant to the needs of clinicians, patients, managers and commissioners. How the programme of NCA and confidential enquiries is commissioned and contract-managed is vital to ensuring that high quality NCAs and confidential enquiries are delivered.
To achieve this, the contractor will need to have expertise in both clinical audit methodology and public procurement. The Department of Health may in the future undertake some form of NCA, adapted for use in social care settings. This lot will include the management and procurement of up to 40 contracts in the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) and 4 National Confidential Enquiries contracts in the Clinical Outcome Review Programme. The contractor will also be responsible for improving the quality, reviewing output and generally supporting the development of National Clinical Audits and Enquiries.
The contractor will need to show strong leadership in presenting a clear description of national clinical audit and how it relates to other quality improvement initiatives. It will also need to communicate effectively in order to present recent finding and publish reports as well as handle press releases and media enquiries.
The contractor should be knowledgeable about Information Governance requirements and able to fulfil them in terms of their internal processes and outsourcing of the data processing aspects. The contractor, as data controller, will ensure that data handling of audits and confidential enquiries are fully compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998.

85100000, 85121200, 85140000, 85148000

Estimated cost excluding VAT:
Range: between 600 000,00 and 1 600 000,00 GBP

Duration in months: 36( from the award of the contract)

The Authority expects the successful organisation(s) to manage around 12 000 000 GBP to 14 000 000 GBP of clinical audit activity for the costs indicated above. Notwithstanding this, the Authority is seeking highly competitive bids for the management aspect, suitably flexible that provide it with the best value for money solution.